For this salad, you need tomatoes bursting with juice and flavour, so it’s best to make this only when amazing tomatoes are in season. The tomato-mix resting time is also important as it allows the salt to extract the tomato juice and flavour the olive oil with garlic and tomato essence. This juice becomes the dressing for the salad, and getting as much flavour into it is what will make the difference between a great salad and a mediocre one. In the restaurants, we chargrill flatbread before tearing it into the salad. The best parts of this salad are the remaining pieces of bread that are completely soaked in the tomato and olive oil juice. They are little soggy treasures of deliciousness.
Serves: 4
250g dried chickpeas (or use 400g tinned)
500g vine plum tomatoes
1 tbsp fine sea salt, plus ¼ tsp
100ml olive oil
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
5 sprigs of basil
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbsp Greek yoghurt
½ red onion, thinly sliced
2 pitta breads
50g sorrel leaves, roughly chopped (spinach is a good alternative)
2 tbsp sumac
Wash the chickpeas in cold running water, then place in a ceramic or glass bowl, cover with cold water and soak overnight. If using tinned chickpeas, rinse them well under cold running water.
Cut each tomato into around 8 pieces, removing the core. Place in a medium bowl, add the tbsp of sea salt, the olive oil, garlic and one of the basil sprigs and massage the mixture with your hands.
Advertisement
Cover with cling film or a clean tea towel and set aside at room temperature for at least 4 hours.
Drain the dried chickpeas and place them into a medium pan with the bicarbonate of soda and cover with water. Cook for 45 minutes-1 hour, until cooked through.
Place the ¼ tsp of salt and remaining basil stalks in a mortar and pestle and pound to a paste. Add the yoghurt to the mortar and stir through, then transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
When the chickpeas are cooked, drain, cool and add to the tomatoes with the sliced red onion.
Just before serving, toast the pitta and break into pieces to mix through the salad. Transfer to a serving bowl, stir through the sorrel leaves and dollop over the basil yoghurt. Finally, sprinkle over the sumac and serve.
Advertisement
Caravan: Dining All Day is out now (Square Peg £25)